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- From Ground Zero, do you notice anything different about the valley that Middlesboro is in when compared to other valleys in the area?
- Are there any noticeable features at GZ that would lead one to believe that this is a meteorite strike area? If yes, what are they?
- Is the Middlesboro Basin a simple or complex crater as shown in the above drawing? (answer can be found at GZ and on cache page)
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Middlesboro, Kentucky
The Kentucky Society of Professional Geologists has determined that Middlesboro, Kentucky is located in the basin of a meteorite impact crater. Sometime over the past 300 million years, the impact of a meteorite in between Pine Mountain and the Cumberland Mountains, formed a circular basin approximately three miles in diameter.
William M. Andrews Jr., a geologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, said erosion and vegetation have hidden most signs of the meteorite's impact. However, enough evidence remains, he said, to support the conclusion. "You have the round shape, shattered rock in the middle and deformed rocks around the sides that have been bent, folded or shoved," Andrews said. "That's pretty strong evidence that it was a meteorite impact crater. Middlesboro is in this strangely round valley in the middle of Appalachia. You don't get round valleys here.” (AP 9/20/03)
In 1775, Daniel Boone was commissioned to clear a trail through Cumberland Gap. Boone didn’t realize that three miles of his “Boone’s Trace” was made easier by the impact of an ancient meteorite.
Theory has it that the meteorite was more than 1,500 feet in diameter. Remnants of the uplifted central peak of the crater are visible on the grounds of the city’s golf course.
The rock shown in the image above was found at the country club. The feather-like striations visible in the rock are the telltale pattern of a shatter cone, a type of rock fragment naturally formed only during impact events. The existence of shatter cones helped confirm the meteorite impact in the Middlesboro basin.
This gives the town the rare distinction of being one of the few cities in the world completely built inside a crater. This crater is one of three known astroblemes (star wound) in Kentucky.
